ONGOLE: For the first time in a decade, staff of Nallamala forest’s Markapur division have spotted a ‘Scarlet Minivet’ bird in the Dornala range.These birds are placed under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red list of Threatened Species and called ‘Least Concern Species’ as their population is less and sightings are rare. They are usually seen in South Asia, North East States of India, China, Indonesia, and Philippines.
Scarlet Minivet is a 20-22 cm-long bird having a strong dark beak, long wings, black upper parts and head, and scarlet-colored underparts and wing patches. Scarlet Minivets (scientific name Pericrocotus speciosus) catch insects in trees. It flushes insects out of foliage by beating its wings hard. Scarlet Minivets usually live in small groups. Its song is a pleasant whistling. This bird nests high up in the trees. Its nest is a cup-like structure woven with small twigs and spiders’ webs to increase the strength.
“We are happy that the rare ‘Scarlet Minivet’ bird was sighted in the Dornala range of the Nallamala Forest. Nallamala Forest is growing as a haven of biodiversity and becoming a rich platform of flora and fauna. Scarlet birds are seen in big trees and we will put more efforts to protect these birds and their habitats,” Forest Range Officer Visveswara Rao explained.
“Our photographer, Bhanu Prasad, has been taking various wildlife pictures in the division. Luckily, in one of his photographs, we have identified the ‘Scarlet Minivet’ bird, which is a rare sight in this region of the country,” Mukku Prasada Reddy, Deputy Forest Range Officer-Dornala, told TNIE.